03 October 2015

Wijaya FC: We want consistency from NFABD

Nadzirah Malek-Webb

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

WIJAYA FC team manager Mahdini Hj Mohamad has voiced his frustrations with the inconsistent rule changes in the DST Super League and highlighted that these rules should only be changed after the season concludes.Wijaya are fourth in the 10-team table after Tuesday night’s 3-1 win over Jerudong FC, but Mahdini feels that certain changes are affecting their performance as well as other clubs in the league.“We are quite frustrated with the inconsistency from the National Football Association Brunei Darussalam (NFABD). They have been changing rules to apparently suit one club, but not to others, and we wonder why?” he said in an interview with The Brunei Times yesterday.“During the latest transfer window we registered a 17-year-old Australian who’s based here and has shown great potential as a striker, but it was rejected.
“NFABD told us that it’s Football Federation Australia’s (FFA) law to not allow players who are under 18 to sign for a club internationally.“Fair enough, but why can’t we sign him when he turns 18? We expect NFABD to be precise in their code of rules, so we don’t place high hopes in the players only to disappoint them when we can’t actually recruit them.“There was a rule a while back that limits a club to only one international player on the field. Then all of a sudden we saw one club place two of these players in their game.“We asked NFABD about it and they said ‘It’s a new rule we just implemented’.
“In the middle of the league season? That’s not right!” he fumed.The former Wijaya FC player also claimed that the national governing body for football is not communicating well with all the clubs, especially with their website updates and player suspension lists.“One of our players, Jamrin Hj Johari, was booked for the third time in our game against IKLS FC in week two of the second round, and we expected him to not play in the game against the Royal Brunei Police Force Sports Council (MS PDB) in week three,” said Mahdini.“We placed him in our squad list in our game last night (Tuesday night) against Jerudong FC and we received a call from NFABD telling us that he’s still under suspension.“We were puzzled and challenged them, and they come up with an unacceptable statement that they have not updated their suspension list.
“We expected a more professional approach from them because it has affected the player’s morale. We are not afraid to voice our opinions and our frustrations if it means it will make NFABD realise what they need to improve.
“This is after all not just for us but for football in Brunei.”